Two Prominent Activists Arbitrarily Detained in Malabo

Equatorial Guinea: Free Human Rights
Defenders

April 21, 2017 12:01AM EDT

(Nairobi, April 21, 2017) – Equatorial Guinean authorities should immediately
release two men who head the country’s leading human rights organization, seven
human rights and transparency organizations said.

“The authorities have a long history of harassing, arbitrarily detaining, and
generally interfering with the work of human rights defenders in Equatorial
Guinea,” said Tutu Alicante, executive director of EG Justice, which monitors
human rights abuses in Equatorial Guinea. “This latest incident shows the
authorities’ willingness to trample on the country’s due process laws to
intimidate and silence dissent.”

Asumu is the president, and Okenve vice president, of CEID. On April 16,
authorities prevented Asumu from boarding a flight from the country’s island
capital, Malabo, to the mainland city of Bata, claiming they were acting on the
orders of the minister of national security, said a colleague of Asumu’s who was
present and Asumu’s lawyer.

The following day, Asumu and Okenye visited the ministry’s offices, which
are housed in same building as the Central Police Station in Malabo. The
national security minister interrogated the two men in his office for more than
five hours, said two colleagues who accompanied them to the meeting and waited
outside. After the meeting ended, at about 6 p.m., the authorities prevented
Asumu and Okenve from leaving the building, and they continue to hold them
there.

The police have permitted the colleagues, as well as family members, to
visit Asumu and Okenve, and have allowed them access to their lawyers. But the
authorities have not brought them before a judge, which the law requires within
24 hours. Nor have the authorities charged them, which under Equatorial Guinean
law must take place within 72 hours.

The Ministry of the Interior ordered
CEID to suspend its activities indefinitely in March 2016. Colleagues who
have spoken with Asumu and Okenve said that the authorities have threatened to
fine them 10 million CFA francs (US$16,000) for violating this order.

The ministry issued the order after shutting down a youth meeting that it
contends included statements by participants that constituted incitement, a
charge CEID maintains is false and politically motivated. The organization
appealed the suspension order, but received no response, a representative from
the organization said.

The organization announced
that it would resume its activities in September 2016. A representative of
the organization contended that the April 2016 suspension of its operations was
effective only for three months. Since then, it has organized events attended by
representatives from various government ministries.

The government of Equatorial Guinea is applying to join the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an effort that brings together
governments, companies, and nongovernmental groups to encourage better
governance of resource-rich countries by fostering open public debate about the
use of oil, gas, and mining revenues. The EITI requires
member governments to foster “an enabling environment for civil society” and to
“refrain from actions which result in narrowing or restricting public debate in
relation to implementation of the EITI.”

Equatorial Guinea has been dogged by corruption scandals exacerbated by the
lack of transparency related to natural resource revenues. The suspension of the
country’s leading organization promoting transparency and respect for human
rights, and the detention of its leadership, send the wrong signal about the
government’s commitment to combatting corruption, the groups said.

“These detentions make the government’s promises to respect civil society as
part of its bid to join EITI ring hollow,” said Elisa Peter, executive director
of Publish What You Pay. “They threaten to topple the country’s EITI candidacy
and send the message that the government will not tolerate independent
voices.”

When CEID resumed its activities in September 2016, it also resumed its role
as a member of the national steering committee that involves government
officials, oil companies, and civil society as the first stage in applying for
EITI membership. The national steering committee last met on April 12, and the
minister of mines attended an event the human rights group held on April 14 in
celebration of its twentieth anniversary.

“The government works with CEID when it wants to feign respect for civil
society, but then keeps this suspension order hanging over it like the sword of
Damocles,” said Sarah
Saadoun, a business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “By
bullying two of the country’s most respected human rights defenders, the
government seems to be trying to silence civil society at a moment of rising
anger over the country’s deepening economic crisis.”